XVI International Numismatic Congress

The circulation of coins in the North Konkan coast: Sopara case study

16 Sept 2022, 11:00

20m

Auditorium Maximum - Hall A

oral presentation S30. ANTIQUITY AND MIDDLE AGES 4. MOVEMENT OF COINS IN ASIA – ARCHAEOLOGY NUMISMATICS AND NETWORKS – SILK ROAD

Speakers

Andrzej Romanowski (Department of Coins and Medals, National Museum in Warsaw) Emilia Smagur (Polish Centre of the Mediterranean Archaeology, Warsaw University)

Description

This paper aims to discuss the circulation of coins on the territory of the North Konkan coast in the Early Historic and Medieval periods. Its purpose is also to present a narrative on cultural interactions between the North Konkan and other parts of India. Its role as both a member of the greater South Indian cultural landscape, and as a participant in Indian Ocean trade networks will be discussed as well.
This topic is important and as yet, not sufficiently studied. However, the steadily increasing corpus of finds opens up possibilities for new interpretations. The presented research is based on finds from Sopara site, one of the ancient Indian Ocean ports mentioned in the Periplus Maris Erythraei. The analyzed corpus consists of three datasets: coins found by H. Cousens, coins found by A. Munshi, and coins found by the authors during the metal detector survey of the site.